core

#### Using Wildcards

Select the Pattern match check box in the Replace dialog (Edit | Find and Replace | Replace) box to use wildcards to perform pattern matching.

This option also allows you to find text matching a variety of different search criteria. Consider the following table:

Text To Find | Wildcard to Use | Some Examples
Any one character | . | D.M matches "DIM" or "D4M".
Character set | [ ] | D[MI]S finds "DIS" and "DMS" but not "DMIS" or "DUS".
Any one character in a range | [-] | LINE[2-6] finds "LINE2" and "LINE3" but not "LINE1" or "LINE7". Ranges must be in ascending order.
Any one character except character(s) inside brackets | [^] | POINT[^32] finds "POINT1", "POINT5", and "POINT12", but not "POINT3", "POINT2", "POINT21", or "POINT30".
Any one character except range of characters inside brackets | [^x-z] | LINE[^2-5] finds "LINE6" and "LINEH", but not "LINE3"
Character sets that include the "-" character should have the "-" as the first or last character of the range. If the range excludes the "-" then the "-" should be the second character. | [-] | LINE[0-9-] matches "LINE4" and "LINE-". LINE[^-0-9] matches "LINEH" but not "LINE-".
0 or more instances of the preceding character, unless the following: "*" starts a string "*" follows a "^" that starts a string "*" starts a parenthesized sub-expression | * | lo*p matches "lp" and "looooop". ^* matches a "*" if it starts a line.
Line beginning with a specified phrase or character. The "^" is special only at the beginning of a string. | ^ | ^CIRCLE finds all lines that begin with the word "CIRCLE". Note that indented lines in the software's Edit window begin with spaces.
Line ending with a specified phrase or character. The "$" is special only at the end of a string. | $ | ENDMEAS/$ finds lines ending in "ENDMEAS/" but not "MEAS/"
Parentheses in the Find What box store what is within them to be recalled later in the Replace With box. In the Replace With box a backslash "\" character, followed by a number would bring that defined pattern into the replace text. | () and \ | Find What: BO(BB)Y(RAY) Replace With: DO1YP2 Would Give: DOBBYPRAY \1 uses the first set of characters offset by parentheses, \2 the second set and so on.

For pattern matches, you no longer need to precede parentheses with a backslash (\) character as you had to do in some earlier versions of PC-DMIS.